Tuesday, 25 July 2017

awaragainstforgetting

A war against forgetting - on a plane returning from Documenta14 and I
can't remember where I picked this up from but it has felt like that from the
first day in Kassel to the last. The role of the artist at Documenta14 is
firmly one of pointing stuff out that is going on in the world - almost all of
it bad, in fact actually all the work has acted as a form of testimony, the
artist performing duties on the front line and reporting back. Sergio Zevallos
- A War Machine examined and repurposed the use of eugenics on the evil people
of the world, including various bankers, despots from Golden Lion and Theresa
May. This display used measuring devices and various display tools and diagrams
to create a number shrunken heads that sum up evilness. http://www.documenta14.de/en/artists/948/sergio-zevallos
On the historical front pieces like the body of work by Marilou Schultz
highlighted a protest of American Sioux indians, connecting weaving skills,
land rights, capitalist corporations and the computer chip. http://www.documenta14.de/en/artists/22610/marilou-schultz
Treading a middle ground, using both archive and the new, a work by Maria
Eichhorn Some of the places where Jews were robbed in combination with Sarah
Gensburger's book Witnessing the robbing of the Jews was just astounding. The
piece highlighted the archive work around the appropriation and repatriation of
books from individual and national libraries - just stunning. http://www.rosevallandinstitut.org/documenta14_en.html

Other highlights include Prinz Gholam - speaking of pictures explores
images of the body, poses and statues. Koken Ergun - I soldier - a video of a
rally - presenting the preposterous poverty of military aspiration. http://www.vdb.org/titles/ben-askerim-i-soldier George Hadjimichalis piece - crossroad crossroad where Oedipus Killed Laius,
images and film of a landscape created from a huge metal sheet covered in black
pigment and resin. http://www.documenta14.de/en/artists/22262/george-hadjimichalis
Allan Sekula - middle passage 3 - a documentary piece that presents elements of
the ship building and fishing industry. Britta Marakatt-Labba stitched piece of
Finish history - a kind of cooler better designed Bayeux Tapestry. Thanassis
Totsikas - silent journey - a stoic man carries a stoic man on his back as if a
donkey through a wood. Nikos Navridis - looking for a place - extraordinary
film of balloons and masks and masks as balloons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJDW6Lpsfe8

One of the true delights of a festival of this nature is access to
spaces usually unavailable to the general public; a former underground
station, factories, offices and a flat were all explored as well as the more
formal spaces of museums where the work is interestingly contextualised by the
collection.

Just remembered where the words A war against forgetting comes from, it
was in the excellent film by Naeem Mohaiemen Two meetings and a Funeral,
re-presenting the many issues around the nonaligned nations in the 70s at
various congresses' and the subsequent interference in the nation states by
factions within and associated with America. The past is a foreign country.
http://sharjahart.org/sharjah-art-foundation/projects/two-meetings-and-a-funeral

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my practice in general explores the book; specifically ideas around a sense of place.The book as a symbol of power and knowledge can be a vehicle to communicate directly; it is a form that is understood in these terms but repositioning its context and purpose challenges these very notions. The work becomes a question rather than an answer, a collaboration between maker and reader/viewer. The practical aspects of the book form, of disseminating information; of making things clearer is an interesting idea to question.The sculptural forms are derived from and examine the book form. The work explores the idea of form as a content and manipulation as the narrative.The work positions itself conceptually and physically between and within the idea of both sculpture and book. The hybrid nature of the work finds its roots in both forms – exploring and challenging both genres.The idea of a sense of place comes from stillness and silence, a reflective experience of taking time to look, listen and consider the spaces I find myself in and my connection to them. The immediate landscape around my house and the walks I undertake provide a starting point for the work, the unseen and the seen have equal worth when making the work.